It's been an intense couple of hours Skat cats.
And for a long time I've been aching for some sort of closure on this - and this being an aching agonizing search for love, art, and rock and roll........ I have found the answer to my prayers and have begun the final step to my achieving ultimate satisfaction in:
THE CASE OF THE STRING QUARTET!
Alright so before I go into what will become my "mission 29" I need to inform this story. Not literally ahem - as in tell a "story" some information - yet ... rather..... well... YOU GET IT C'mon!!
4 and a half years ago.
I was a very fortunate young lad to have a plethora of friends. Many friends - in many different places. Yet that was life in High school. Many friends - out all the time. You walk away from high school not with the "knowledge" to advance into the real world - or at least not at mine you didn't. You picked up what you could - through likes and dislikes and "street smarts" you learned what you wanted to get into....... Through my learning - and my friendships in highschool --- I had two distinct groups of friends.
School friends:
Church friends:
Now this story takes place with a certain Church friend..... A certain Matt Linblad. I also call him Matt Mayhem haha - a nickname/stage name I suppose he gave himself. He's a pretty rockin guy..... Quite literally - Rock star and all. And before he moved back to his home land of "the United States" of America haha (Orange County California) - I and he went on a little road trip.
The trip.
I was on my way to school - the last day before Spring Break. *ring ring* "hark, I do believe that is my phone!" - I thought to myself. Sure enough it was good ol Matt. Within a second of silly hello's he began telling me about how he was not looking forward to his family trip to Disney World - all by himself. Sure he'd have his loving family with him - but he wanted a good pal to be by his side............ ;) I'm a good pal.
In a flash I called my mom and told her the good news. She was thrilled for me being a frequent Disney vacationer herself...... And I mean that - she goes every year - SINCE it first opened! Now I do believe there was about a 10 year split where she was only able to go about 1 time seeing how we took to the beaches and overwhelmingly intense mini putt courses of Myrtle Beach. (my favorite was the Peter Pan one!).
As I was hearing details from my mother I am still standing at the bus stop waiting to go to school that morning and (foreshadowing) my friend Mike Mackenzie (who also is now moved away - Vancouver B.C) drives up to me "need a lift?".......... CAN THIS DAY GET ANY BETTER?!
I get a ride to school and the whole day flashes past as a complete blur - nothing is getting through to me except for the extreme trip at hand.
The next morning I wake up really early and get a drive to Matt's house. We pack up his care and head out...... This is of course learning that this a REAL road trip. None of that straight on driving until we get there - which can still be fun - EXCEPT - when you can stop and see new places and live out their individual beauty's - it's soo amazing.... Our first stop was simple. Just a night over in Kentucky....... WHICH by the way I did not see a SINGLE KFC...... I think it's a bloody myth. There are KFC killing us slowly all over the world - EXCEPT for in Kentucky... I think it's a conspiracy...... Sure I didn't see ALL of Kentucky ....... But I swear!!!
Next stop was Atlanta Georgia. HOME OF THE COCA-COLA FACTORY!!! haha. We didn't see it. We decided to take on a more historical look around. We went to the very Church that Rev. Martin Luther King spoke at - and right across the street is a church named in his honor. Right up the street was the very house he was born in. Of course this is where I learned about "shot gun houses". Pretty intense stuff. And then of course the memorial itself of Martin Luther King.... It said "here lies" - but I feel as though he may be berried some place else..... After that we traveled to more residential area to visit a friend of their family. It was nice and also a bit weird for me to be walking through a random house in a completely different country. A new experience for me. We debated staying there for the night - but onward we did go. We made it to Disney. We stayed in a hotel just off the Disney location. Now ANYone who is ANYONE knows when staying at Disney - you STAY at Disney - but we had more things in mind than just simply going to Disney world.
We went to of course the best location on earth "The Magic Kingdom" - and spent an entire day embracing out child sides and the magic and fun that really is there.
The 2nd day Matt and I decided to stay around the hotel - not tooo far from the hotel was in face "DownTown Disney", which is a fun place for shopping and then later at night turns into a club district. There is also a very large building which is an enormous arcade. We spent our day mostly in there.
But while shopping - we ventured into the huge "Virgin Records" store..................(here it comes) .................... Just sitting there. Facing me as if I were a bus and he were a child racing forward at me in a game of "chicken" on no more than a child's scooter. (Did that once)
At the time I was into many different sorts of punk bands - and there sitting in front of me was a CD of Sum 41. But this was not the Sum 41 I knew of.... It was their music - but reworked. Now I say reworked and not "remixed" because this was no beat thugged out version of their songs.... This was a String Quartet Tribute cd to the band.
Now this was by far the funniest and most intriguing thing I have ever seen.... BUT - being in high school - I was short on Cash. And was able to make only 1 more purchase. Should I buy it? OR should I buy either a Keith Richards Bobble head ORRRRRR a Fork that extends to become a foot long?
IT HAD BECOME THE HARDEST DECISION OF MY LIFE! a Rockin cool cd? A funny lookin Bobble head? Or and Extendo Fork?!
But I left with my head held high........... AND MY FORK HELD EVEN HIGHER!!!
Golly! It was sooo cool before it broke a month later! sighh...
But ever since then - that album has been on my mind - and who made it was beyond me. I never thought to write down the bands name and download it when I got home or try looking for it to legally purchase it back in Canada...... So for 4 and a half - almost 5 long years - I have spent the odd couple of nights trying to track them down.
Most recently I have been downloading television episodes online with my "bit torrent" application - and while trying for the life of me to download the cd soundtrack to "Billy Elliot" the Musical --- I remembered the cd.
I tried it out in the search..... It didn't come up.
But a name did...............
Who?! - I thought. But in a flash I opened up another one of my illegal search ..... download..... application....... thing.
I punched in the name - and like wild fire - more and more songs streamed down. Anywhere from "Bohemian Rhapsody" to "Welcome to the Jungle", "Ironman" and "Clocks" by Coldplay... It was about my 20th song downloaded before I searched up more albums online...... and there I found it. "Fat Lip" by Sum 41. I downloaded it quickly and jammed to it embracing every beautiful pluck of the strings.... Then it occurred to me....... Do they have Jason Mraz triubutes??!!! I searched and searched and nothing came up. I was almost finished before it popped up on Google...... "I'm Yours" Tribute by The Vitamin String Quartet........... Jaw open - palms sweaty... Bed time nearing...... Mission starting.
-Mission 28- I'm Yours
Searching more and more I could not find me. Trying different variations to my search patterns - and even researching the same links in hopes something new will pop up. I was able to find new songs such as "Nowhere Man" by the Beatles and "Where is my mind" by the Pixies - but no sign of "Im Yours".
I had downloaded about 30 songs at this point - all of em being beautiful in sound but still not "I'm Yours".... Ironically enough by about 5:30 am I really just thought that this song was not going to be mine.... (teehee)
I gave up with my finale download of "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers and "Dare you to move" by Switchfoot....... And as I put my computer to the side of me - I fell a sleep to those blissful strings playing the most TRIUMPHANT music anyone could hope for at 6:10 in the morning.
I woke up at noon. Yelled at my phone to shut the hell up - then woke up at a quarter to two - of course putting my healthy sleeping to shame - but I woke up - did my usual teeth brush shower - doggy shake dry routine and I was back to it! - well thats a lie. I went outside to get some sun. Didn't work out. I got about ten seconds before the clouds covered up that joyful array of skin cancer! And so inside I came. Still saddened by the lack of my songs (although 30 would hold me over quite nicely) - I posted a message on my facebook - "Anyone want to buy me a single song on Itunes?! Im desperate with NO Itunes account!" -- Within seconds - my good buddy "MIKE Ma(f'in)ckenzie" was BACK in the game! Always popping out unexpectedly to help me out!! -- It wasn't more than a few seconds before I told him the song I wanted and that he was a king among - not - kings - but still a great human being.
I HAVE THE SONG!!! man oh man! That message encouraged other people like my friend Sara to join in on the pJ love and get me a song that was only available to purchase on Itunes like "Freebird" ---- sigh..... I am rolling in the tuneskies! I busted on "I'm Yours" and danced around my room screaming with joy - jamming along. Music is beautiful.
Long live Music! - ps. Take a look at The Vitamin String Quartet!
-pJ
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